An Outline of English Speech-craft

Name: An Outline of English Speech-craft
Author: William Barnes

By William Barnes

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Language & Communication Teaching & Education

About This Book

This work presents a practical, speech-centered grammar aimed at teaching English through spoken forms rather than orthography. It develops a phonetic framework—free breathings and breath-pennings—for vowels and consonants, reframes grammatical categories by treating time-words (tenses) as strong or weak and case as the situation a thing falls into with time, and treats prepositions and postpositions as case-markers. It advocates English-based terminology, explores parts of speech, participles, helping verbs, word-formation, and word-endings, and urges the recovery of older Anglo-Saxon and dialect vocabulary to enrich teaching and expression.

About the Author

William Barnes

William Barnes was a 19th-century English poet, writer, and philologist, best known for his works that celebrate rural life and the Dorset dialect. His notable book, "Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect," showcases his deep appreciation for the language and culture of his native Dorset. In addition to poetry, Barnes contributed to linguistic studies, exemplified in his work "An Outline of English Speech-craft," which reflects his interest in the mechanics of language. His writings not only capture the essence of rural England but also serve as an important part of the literary heritage of dialect poetry.